Triterpene glycosides ofHerniaria glabra. I

Reinvestigation of the sapogenins and prosapogenins from alfalfa (Medicago sativa)

“…The most abundant alfalfa terpenoid is medicagenic acid (1), the structure of which was determined in 1957 (Djerassi et al, 1957). It is worth noting that this important compound has since only been isolated three times from other sources: as castanogenin in Castanospermum australe (Bade et al, 1963), in Hemiaria glabra (Bukharov and Shcherbak, 1970), and in Zanha golugensis (Dimbi et al, 1984). Hederagenin (2), the major sapogenin of ivy, was identified in alfalfa long after its first isolation as sapogenin U (Shany et al, 1972).…”

Alfalfa saponins — the allelopathic agents

“…Medicagenic acid glycosides rarely occur in the plant kingdom, but to date they have been found in numerous species of the genus Medicago (Papilionaceae) (Jurzysta et al, 1988a, b), Medicago (former Trigonelia, Small et al, 1987) (Papilionaceae) (Oleszek et al, 1987b;Jurzysta et al, 1988a, b), Herniaria (Caryophyllaceae) (Bukharov and Shcherbak, 1970;Klein et al, 1982) and in Castanospermum australe (Papilionaceae) (Hiller and Voigt, 1977). In the family Papilionaceae the medicagenic acid glycosides proved to be the chemotaxonomic marker distinguishing the genus Medicago from other closely related genera, e.g.…”